Ghosts population is abysmal, and it's clear interest has died off the past month or two. It's hitting record low peaks under 45k, and only 61k right now on this Saturday Night Double XP. It was getting 160k on weekends, and 115-125k on weekdays about a month or two ago. It was fairly consistent for a good four months only losing 10k here and there. It's now declining fast, and this is a trend of a dying game. When Advanced Warfare comes out it might drop below MW3 or ever older Call of Duty games.

I enjoyed Ghosts, and if it didn't change I would be okay with it. I like the TTK, the perk system, and the map variety. I like the differing playstyles with each map. I feel that there was a higher skillgap. However, I don't want to come back to a dead game. There's another two years before the next Infinity Ward game, and I don't think they can afford to just let it die while they work on "Ghosts 2". I think it's time for a major title update to shake things up. This is open for discussion and opinions. It's not a list of demands, and I am simply stating ideas I have come up with.

Here are a list of ideas I have:

Gameplay changes:

-Increase base health to heavy duty level, buff and scale sniper multipliers to equal where they currently are, nerf ballistic vests so total health is as it is now* (I only base this change off of other's opinions, I am okay with health)

-Add two create-a-class points, this means additional perk(s), equipment, secondary, ect. This would make every player more powerful than they currently are in Ghosts.

Gametypes:

-reinforce and team tactical removed; imo no need for team tactical when clan is 4v4

-headquarters or hardpoint added; i think these maps would work well with a focus objective rotating around different sections of the map

Equipment changes:

-Tactical: players who equip Concussion or 9 bang will be given two, extra tactical equipment will increase to a total of three

-Buff the MSBS by increasing damage and lowering recoil. I already feel this gun was overnerfed, and with added health this gun is going to be hurt the most in the game. It already requires an entire burst at max damage to get a kill. The Marksmen lose some range, but will still be very effective. Automatics will be weaker across the board, but even still are at a greater advantage. Besides the MTAR-x, all the SMGs have been already buffed from where they were at launch. I already think the MSBS could use a slight buff, and with a health increase it would need it.

-Buff shotguns to stay consistent to how they already perform

-As stated earlier under gameplay changes, buff sniper multipliers so they are consistent to how they already perform

Killstreak changes:

-sentry gun lasts 30 second longer

-vulture is built in with trophy system and pings radar (basically becomes an assault night owl)

-battle hind is more aggressive and has more health (blind eye LMGs take it down too quickly)

-Weapon mastery: getting a gun gold now comes with a patch resembling the gun with a golden paint

-Class mastery: awarded with platinum camo for every gun Gold in class, gives a specific background and patch representing class completed, examples: Marksmen Rifles get a gold patch that resembles the marksmen perk in MW3, Snipers get a gold patch that resembles Guile Suit, ect. Backgrounds would be all the guns in that class placed inside a gun rack cabinet.

-Patch showcase - display up to ten patches (2 rows x 5 columns) in the main menu, located underneath your character and above your K/D ratio through time played statistics. These can be scrolled through by other players to read the description of how you earned them.

New Prestiges:

-One additional character costing 1000 squad points will be added for Master Prestige players to purchase, this character will have five traditional prestiges tied to it, players who previously reset their stats will be given the option to skip ahead and unlock it for 200 squad points, each prestige will have a unique emblem and overwrite the character's current emblem, unlocks are lost upon each prestige, all weapons are unlocked free, all equipment and perks cost 2x their normal price, perks are still earned through leveling, attachments are 8x their normal price meaning you will have to actually grind to unlock attachments, once you complete the fifteenth prestige (fifth for the new character) you will be granted one additional create-a-class point permanently (only applies to this character)

With more than two years before Infinity Ward's next Call of Duty we are going to need some new things to keep the game interesting. I based my ideas through reading these forums and youtube comments as well as my personal experience and insight from playing the game.

I honestly see the game beyond saving but here are some things I would change to balance the game.

Perks

Agility nerf speed increase

Stalker nerf speed increase

Both of these would help also in lag issues

Equipment

Grenades should not require danger close to kill people with blast shield. Taking up 7 slots danger close plus two lethal plus the grenade itself to kill anyone on the map with two grenades is ridiculous.

Guns

Increase recoil on LMGs

Nerf ripper until it's useless that ones for me

Overused gun.

And just fix matchmaking in general. I'll probably think of more but this is a simplified list. I'm on my phone.

I don't think nerfing that stuff will make the game better. None of that is OP imho

Most of my suggestions would make players more powerful. I included an idea for buffing grenades, but I don't think they should be made to overpower blast shield. If players complain the game is too slow than nerfing speed perks is definitely not going to work.

I was wondering where your first comment went after I saw the notification...something about a grenade's radius? yeah BS is a counter...what kind of logic would be applied in the process of making a literally useless counter perk?

Yeah slowing the game down further is somewhat equivalent to "RIP Infinity Ward". I don't think anyone's gonna have much faith in them for their next game

Bud, we lost all faith in them after this game... they introduced nice changes, but the game was flatter than a slice of matzah bread out of the gate, and in response in one week we went from nearly a million 360 players to right around 200k.. one week was all it took for 90% of the fanbase to go "Oh wow.. this was what the hype was about? Black Ops 2 guys?" and poof, that game's population soared... the rest.. who knows. I have several long time CoD friends who like me enjoyed the overall mechanics of this title, but unlike me didn't like it enough to keep playing... and clearly.. very very clearly.. they weren't alone in that opinion.

Never have I seen so many CoD friends jump BACK to the last title, or flat out play everything else under the sun except for Ghosts...

I liked Ghosts, but I have to admit.. it's a very weak entry in CoD history.. a pretty solid one, but honestly.. the last "solid" CoD title also suffered this same fate with fans.. WaW was beloved, but it suffered from a "we're so blown out on WW2 stuff, screw this game." fate.. it was a fantastically built and one of the best visual experiences I've had with a CoD title, but it was crippled from the get go due to the death of the WW2 trend at the time of release.. Ghosts, while it doesn't fit a trend really, was crippled due to a.. and I'll be flat frank about this.. completely uninspired background, campaign, map setup, and overall design.. >.< I'll remember Ghosts like I do WaW (maybe not quite as fondly), but it'll hold a place in my heart with the other two really well built CoD titles.. so that's something

Ghosts population is abysmal, and it's clear interest has died off the past month or two. It's hitting record low peaks under 45k, and only 61k right now on this Saturday Night Double XP. It was getting 160k on weekends, and 115-125k on weekdays about a month or two ago. It was fairly consistent for a good four months only losing 10k here and there. It's now declining fast, and this is a trend of a dying game. When Advanced Warfare comes out it might drop below MW3 or ever older Call of Duty games.

Ghosts population is horrible because its the worst COD game we have ever got. While some may like it, the game is wrong on so many levels that the COD players have long since abandoned it. If you go and look at numbers across ALL platforms you will see that including the PS4, PS3, Wii U, Xbox 360, and XBOX One the numbers are still WAY BELOW what the last 4-5 COD games had just on the XBOX 360. The style of the game has taken 100 steps backward of how the game should be, and after about a week of playing I made a long post on here saying how after 3-4 months people would leave this game and go back to older COD's or other games. Black Ops 2 currently averages TWICE the amount of players than Ghosts, and that's saying a LOT being as there were a ton of complaints about that game, even though I think it was one of the better ones we got.

Evo, you're opinion is just out of anger because you are bad at Ghosts. You can't handle games which require more skill. Better maps and less autoaim. No more lowstreaks for noobs to get free kills. High streaks still dominate. Good players get richer, bad players get poorer. If there's any flaw with Ghosts it's too balanced and skillful for a casual skilless COD community.

I mostly agree with you. Unfortunately, there are many things in the game that cater to making things easier for people, and that narrows the skill gap. I'm all about keeping it simple, running an iron sight AR or SMG and running around slaying, but far too many bad players can get free easy kills on or any other player with lag lunge knifing, thermal no-recoil LMGs and double IEDs, plus ridiculous care package streaks from field orders.

As an example, look at the guy above that expects stock grenades to kill blast shield users. Hint: if you need to run double lethals and danger close in order to get two kills, you don't deserve those kills until you've upped your gun skill. Those two perks freed up from dropping double lethals gives you focus, which could win you ten or more 50/50 gunfights in one game alone.

Evo, you're opinion is just out of anger because you are bad at Ghosts. You can't handle games which require more skill. Better maps and less autoaim. No more lowstreaks for noobs to get free kills. High streaks still dominate. Good players get richer, bad players get poorer. If there's any flaw with Ghosts it's too balanced and skillful for a casual skilless COD community.

Bad at Ghosts? LOL. This is the EASIEST game in the COD series for new players to play. I have a 4.27 KD, a 7.98 W/L and play Domination 99.9% of the time. I average 10-12 caps a game, and tons of defends. As for "auto-aim" I never used it. I have my defaults set as off on ALL shooter/action games. Maps are FAR from better. Most of them are too large for 6v6 and have WAY too many levels, nooks, crannys, and hiding spots.

My opinion is out of what COD has devolved to. The "community" wanted large maps yet wanted less camping. That there shows just how dumb the average player is. The bigger the map the more places for players to set up shop. Ghosts fails on so many levels that it's really sad. If it was so good, then why have the numbers dropped so drastically from the previous COD to this one? It's NOT because of the next gen because there are only 20,000 playing on the XBOX One on average and 30,000 on the PS4 on average. The PS3 and XBOX 360 hover between 50,000-70,000 each making for a TOTAL of around 200,000 TOTAL across all the platforms. BO2 (with all the hate it got from this godly community) was going well over 250,000 JUST ON THE XBOX 360 THE MONTH BEFORE GHOSTS WAS RELEASED. Keep in mind that GTA5 was released close to the end of BO2's life cycle as well.

It is so easy for new players? Actually i've been with Call of Duty since COD 2. It's very easy for me: 6.5 k/d solo, KEM on every disc map, and get crab meat all the time with higher killstreaks. If anything it's clearly the opposite. A lot of the people playing COD right now started with MW3 or BO2 and are getting wrecked in Ghosts which is why they went back to those games. Many players who started earlier have no problem adapting to Ghosts.

You don't use autoaim? LOL the xbox profile action game defaults do nothing to affect aim assist. Those were made when the 360 first dropped and were basically never used. Even Microsoft games like Halo do not work with that setting. You have to turn it off in the in game settings, and Infinity Ward games don't let you turn it off, only Black Ops games do. All i was pointing out is that gunfights are more consistent on your ability to control the weapon instead of autoaim doing the work. Ghosts has less autoaim on moving targets, but more normal autoaim on stationary targets. Also, it's got better hit detection therefore it's more fluid. Snipers are completely fair unlike BO2 where the autoaim and flinch are completely disproportional to the map design. USR is still a beast, but it's balanced to the maps and perk system.

Also, the game has much less lag compensation that recent CODs and the only major lag issues i see are hitmarkers displaying late. There's much less teleporting and random lag for me as someone with good internet and low ping.

As for maps, Ghosts maps are all different and unique. The maps are not any more complex than MW2 maps. Perhaps you started late into the series, but Black Ops 2 is the outlier not Ghosts. Siege is crazy big, but the rest are fine. Stonehaven in particular plays small and can be dominated with every single gun class, except a shotgun. Even maps like Siege and Whiteout can easily be dominated with an SMG class. Whiteout used to be my least favorite map, but now i have no problem running around with a K7 and putting up crazy scores on it. You are complaining about getting into the action yet boast a high k/d. Something doesn't add up.

GTA5 did hurt Ghosts sales, and pre-orders were down. It's cause and effect. You're dismissing points i did not even make to begin with, and proving you're in denial. Ghosts had negative reviews which also hurt sales. Those reviews were all basically about campaign and about a week before/after release. There's was way more negativity to Ghosts before it even released than previous games. The population was never that good to begin with even on launch day. Let's look at Ghosts competition. Halo 4 was under 20k player peaks in only five months and it never recovered. Titanfall numbers weren't great, and Ghosts is currently outselling it. Battlefield 4 only sold 10 million across all platforms. The only reason i see people hate Ghosts is because the learning curve is too high for many casual players.

How is that a pointless comment cupcake, the thread title says , "perhaps, Its time for a change" so i just added the change i made from playing this terrible game and the better games still available than this load of old tosh, grant you some still like to play it, i actually played it to 10th then resigned it to the bottom drawer, would have sold it after playing a few games but i foolishly purchased the hardened edition which meant i still had to load it into the console for the maps i had paid for,i have not even looked or played the last DLC , so there is your answer to my pointless comment,

This game is beyond saving. Any changes they made at this point could stabilize the population a bit, but most players have moved on to other games or gone back to previous CODs. And Infinity Ward would never make the wholesale changes that it would take to even stabilize the population. They usually just make small tweaks that don't do all that much.

It would be good to stabilize it for the longterm because it's two years before the next Infinity Ward game. The multiplayer numbers of Ghosts were fine and well above BO2 up until the past month. It's hitting record lows on 360. If next gen is already stable then I guess it could change my outlook. A lot of people are going to be shifting to next gen so all the old CODs will lose population there, and likely some will pickup Ghosts. It's clear that Ghosts is dying to some extent now that Black Ops 2 has passed it in multiplayer population.

lag lunge knifing, thermal no-recoil LMGs, Danger Close Tubes, constant oracles, lousy spawn system (altho I think it has improved somewhat), and boring killstreaks, have made what could have been a good game into something beyond repair I'm afraid.

I think they have done a decent job improving spawns.Some updates they were even made worse so I'm not sure I want it changed again. I still get horrible spawns in other CODs so it's not something exclusive to Ghosts. How would you fix thermal no-recoil LMGs? I'm assuming you mean the M27-IAR which is imo the easiest gun to use in the game, but not overpowered. Would you nerf it's default recoil? Add recoil to attaching the thermal scope? Make thermal cost a point? Personally, I think adding sway to the attachment itself would be the best way to balance it.

They have buffed killstreaks in past updates so I'm not sure they won't do it again. Which one's do you find boring?

Something's happened to the spawns on Prison Break...something seriously wrong. I'm getting spawn killed several times a game on there now, and that mostly makes up for about 50% of my deaths - being killed after respawning from another death. Tremor too, to an extent, but Prison Break...oh Jesus. Between these spawns and the fact that everyone just sets up shop with a thermal Noob27, one of my old favourite maps is now in the same "avoid" list as Stormfront, Chasm and Freefall. RIP.

I think they have done a decent job improving spawns.Some updates they were even made worse so I'm not sure I want it changed again. I still get horrible spawns in other CODs so it's not something exclusive to Ghosts. How would you fix thermal no-recoil LMGs? I'm assuming you mean the M27-IAR which is imo the easiest gun to use in the game, but not overpowered. Would you nerf it's default recoil? Add recoil to attaching the thermal scope? Make thermal cost a point? Personally, I think adding sway to the attachment itself would be the best way to balance it.

They have buffed killstreaks in past updates so I'm not sure they won't do it again. Which one's do you find boring?

Yes the spawns have improved over time, they are really no worse than other titles at this point.

The M27 itself isn't the problem IMO, its the Thermal scope itself, it is a IMO, way to clear and has too much zoom, and even Incog really doesn't counter it much at all

Its a campers dream scope..

When you get in a game and the whole other team is doing nothing but laying prone or simply aiming down sights with the thermal, then you must admit, something has to be wrong..

as far as streaks go, the vulture sux, the loki isn't what its cracked up to be, The sentry gun fires too slow IMO, the dog seems like it was nerfed, overall, just not "Fun" streaks, perhaps is better word then boring, just my opinion

I think they have done a decent job improving spawns.Some updates they were even made worse so I'm not sure I want it changed again. I still get horrible spawns in other CODs so it's not something exclusive to Ghosts. How would you fix thermal no-recoil LMGs? I'm assuming you mean the M27-IAR which is imo the easiest gun to use in the game, but not overpowered. Would you nerf it's default recoil? Add recoil to attaching the thermal scope? Make thermal cost a point? Personally, I think adding sway to the attachment itself would be the best way to balance it.

They have buffed killstreaks in past updates so I'm not sure they won't do it again. Which one's do you find boring?

Yes the spawns have improved over time, they are really no worse than other titles at this point.

The M27 itself isn't the problem IMO, its the Thermal scope itself, it is a IMO, way to clear and has too much zoom, and even Incog really doesn't counter it much at all

Its a campers dream scope..

When you get in a game and the whole other team is doing nothing but laying prone or simply aiming down sights with the thermal, then you must admit, something has to be wrong..

as far as streaks go, the vulture sux, the loki isn't what its cracked up to be, The sentry gun fires too slow IMO, the dog seems like it was nerfed, overall, just not "Fun" streaks, perhaps is better word then boring, just my opinion

Case in point, I get on the game just this past hour, every lobby was nothing but people camping with thermal LMGS, Thermal Marksman Rifles, Thermal Snipers, or Tracker sights

Every gun I pick up off the ground has a thermal or Tracker sight on it...

The damn thermal Scope IMHO was worst thing ever and has really IMO, ruined Ghosts from what could have been a good game...

Oh and I did spawn in with a guy looking right at me as well, so theres still some problems there...lol

Don't forget the stance recoil reduction...for LMGs only. When you take literally the second most accurate fully auto weapon in game (M27) and give people going prone about 90% less recoil, with high damage, long range, the ridiculous clarity that the thermal scope provides, barely any ADS time penalty, half the usual sway (makes NO sense), and less flinch than usual (I've tested this myself, using an M27 with no scope) despite the fact that any sniper using focus that gets hit by a random bullet flinches like they're not using focus and are being hit by a Mk14 at point blank range.

I have actually battled M27 + silencer + thermal users on maps like Prison Break where they hide behind their scope, while using an M27 with silencer + GRIP, and recoiled off target (even when crouched), whereas they can wildly flail their right stick towards my rough location, pull the trigger and down me instantly. On far too many occasions, they weren't even using focus, when I use it on every one of my classes. My accuracy with the M27 is around 26.4%, despite rushing around with it and mostly using silencer + rapid fire, so I can assure you my aim isn't the problem.

The M27 on its own? Maybe a little too good. Clear irons, 3-4hk, third highest range in game for autos, second lowest recoil in game for autos, AR sprint out time, fastest reload time in category, rapid fire adding just 5% viewkick for 20% extra ROF...and it's the absolute best weapon in the game to use with Deadeye. The thermal scope? It gives bad players a chance to break even, slows the game down to frequently reached time limits, and makes it boring. The thermal scope itself needs tweaking even just a tiny bit in order to improve the game tenfold. My suggestion: bring auto + thermal scope flinch up to the level that snipers experience, even with focus. That actually requires a touch more skill to do well with consistently.

They idea of updates and hot fixes are to adjust major problems and exploits. It shouldn't be abused by changing aspects of the game that aren't to some players likings. In fact I think IW changed their game too much. Do you know when players really get upset and in an uproar?............. after an update.

Overall, I enjoy Ghosts. For the players that are interested in still playing now and into the future, just accept the game for what it is. Major updates or tweaks to detailed aspects aren't going to make the population grow. Lots of players just don't like Ghosts and word of mouth gave it a bad wrap. Besides a majority of players not liking it, there was a nasty "ghosts is horrible" trend that caused some players not to give it a chance.

You know when Ghosts will be good, after AW comes out. It will fall into the shadows and the only players playing it, will be the ones that accept it for what it is, and enjoy it. They will actually prefer it over AW and BO2.

This is just my opinion and prediction. I already know I'm crazy and in the minority with this perspective.

Good points. I wish that more people would accept Ghosts. I was just trying to think outside the box for major changes and a couple of my points were stolen from well known Ghost haters. This would take a major title update and capability pack for sure. Even if someone from IW read this and liked it they would probably find a lot they did not agree with and choose not to implement. They could easily just buff the MSBS and add new prestige ranks for example

The problem is, it won't happen. The community decided on this game early on, and that perception isn't likely to change. I also doubt such wholesale changes would be worth the time to implement, as I am sure with DLC 4 behind them they have moved on to their next CoD project.

I really feel like while, yes... this game had it's issues.... the biggest issue was and remains the community. We want what we want and expect the Devs to know what that is. We (I am speaking generically as a majority, I understand I don't speak for all, just for the sake of this exercise) don't want to adapt or adjust at all. We are impatient and want everything done immediately.

Sad to say that Ghosts will be cast aside when the new title comes along.

I just wonder if we'll see "Gone back to Ghosts, this game Sucks!" threads in the Advanced Warfare Forums.